From the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation
American artist Chuck Close has been a leading figure in contemporary art since the early 1970s. Celebrating years of the artist’s printmaking career, Chuck Close: Works on Paper, from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation, will include etchings, linoleum cuts, lithographs, screen prints, woodcuts, and paper pulp multiples. The featured artwork includes self-portraits of the artists, and portraiture of family and friends including Alex Katz, Robert Rauschenberg, Janet Fish, Philip Glass, Keith Hollingworth, Kate Moss, and Brad Pitt, among others.
Originally associated with photorealism, Close’s rigorously systematic approach and often visibly gridded formats are similar to those who emerged alongside him in the late 1960s.Though Close is known primarily for his contribution to the history of large-scale painting, he has played a significant role in innovating new methods for printmaking. He made his first print in 1972 and since then has explored the possibilities and limits of the print medium. Close constantly challenges conventional practices and continues to follow the bold trajectory he set for himself nearly five decades ago. When viewed together, his self-portraits are more than just a microcosm of his work at large—they are a timeline of an ongoing investigation of print-making, of materials, and of personal biography.
Close is one of the most highly regarded and influential late twentieth century American artists. He has been the subject of major retrospectives from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Walker Art Center, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Close is represented in the collections of major museums throughout the world. Support for the exhibition has been made possible by the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation.
